Kansas weighs action against abortion doctor

A doctor facing possible disciplinary action over allegations that he broke Kansas law in handling a 13-year-old girl’s abortion told medical regulators he was unaware of the patient’s age – and that staff at the Planned Parenthood clinic was to blame.

Dr. Allen Palmer told the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts during a hearing Thursday that he would have relied on Planned Parenthood’s staff to inform him if the patient during the December 2014 procedure was younger than 14 because he didn’t do abortions on patients so young.

Palmer is accused of failing to preserve fetal tissue from the abortion and submit it to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.

The petition by the board’s deputy litigation counsel says Palmer was a part-time Planned Parenthood contractor solely tasked with performing abortions for patients in their first trimester.